We sighted the _Wasp_ immediately upon rounding Gallows Point. She was
lying quite by herself, down in the most southerly bight of the Hole,
and little more than a cable's length from the beach; consequently we
had a clear, uninterrupted view of her the moment that we cleared the
Point; and she was lying broadside-on to us, with her head pointing to
the southward.
The first thing that impressed me about her was her diminutiveness; in
comparison with some of the craft lying in the Hole she looked little
more than a mere boat, and the idea of actually going to sea and
attempting serious work in such a cockle-shell struck me as little short
of an absurdity. But that feeling wore off a bit as we closed with her;
and the next thing to attract my attention was the great beauty of her
outline. She sat very low upon the water; had an abnormally long,
overhanging counter; and her spring, or sheer, was so great that, low as
she sat, her bow stood high and dominant above the water. She was
painted black from her rail to her copper, the top edge of which was
about six inches above her load-line; and she had only her two
lower-masts and her bowsprit standing. But her masts were magnificent
sticks, lofty enough, apparently, to spread all the canvas that she
could possibly carry, without any need of topmasts, and both spars were
stepped well forward; the mainmast, indeed, seemed to be almost
amidships, giving one a very clear idea of the enormous area which her
mainsail would present when fully set. It was not, however, until we
got close to her, and Carline caused his boatmen to pull slowly round
her, that I detected what the Admiral and the master-attendant meant
when they had spoken of the freakish peculiarities of her model; then,
indeed, it became apparent that her designer had, as Sir Peter had said,
literally turned her lines end for end, as it were. For she had
absolutely no "straight of breadth" at all; her sides were as round as
an apple, and her long bow, shaped like a wedge with curved instead of
straight sides, with just a suggestion of hollowness of the water-line
as it approached the stem, started almost as far aft as the point where
her mainmast was stepped; while her run, instead of fining away toward
the stern-post like the tail of a fish, was quite full, sweeping round
under her counter in a semicircle. Then it was that I understood why
her counter was so abnormally long; it was not merely a fancy on the
part of her designer, intended to give her a smart, rakish appearance,
it was for the purpose of giving her, despite the fulness of her run, a
clean, easy delivery. Yes, as I looked at her critically, studying her
lines from every possible point of view, I could believe that she would
prove a quite extraordinary sailer; for there was nothing in that long,
keen bow for the water to grip, the knifelike stem would sheer into it,
and the gently expanding sides would shoulder it aside with scarcely any
resistance, leaving it to close in again aft about her stern-post with a
nip that would add to her speed, just as one may make a nut spring from
one's fingers by merely pressing upon it. And she would be a good
sea-boat, too, for the bow flared out over the water in such a fashion
as to lift her over any sea, however steep. Yes, I liked the outside
look of her amazingly, and no longer thought the idea of going to sea in
such a craft mere folly; on the contrary, I longed for the moment when I
should have the opportunity to test her capabilities.
Having scrutinised the exterior of my new command to my heart's content,
we went alongside and boarded her. Her gangway was open; and so little
freeboard did she show at this point--Carline measured it and found it
to be exactly four-feet--that we were able to spring from the boat's
gunwale to the schooner's deck without difficulty, and without the need
for a side-ladder. I had by this time quite forgotten my first
impression of diminutiveness in connection with the craft, and the
moment that I passed through the gangway and stood upon her deck I
gained a new impression, namely that of spaciousness. For she was
extraordinarily beamy; her hatchways were small, and there was nothing
in the way of fittings of any kind to cumber up her decks; indeed, so
far as actual room to move about upon was concerned, her quarter-deck
seemed to be quite as spacious as that of the _Europa_. She was
flush-decked fore and aft, and abaft the immensely lofty mainmast there
was nothing but the companion, with a seat and lockers on either side of
it, a fine big skylight, a very handsome brass binnacle, and the wheel.
Her bulwarks were only three feet high, with a fine, solid teak rail;
and she was built of hard wood--oak and elm--throughout, and copper
fastened.
Carline having unlocked the companion doors, we went below, and found
ourselves in a really beautiful little cabin, elegantly fitted up,
painted white and gold, well lighted and ventilated from above by the
big skylight, and with three large, circular ports on each side as well.
There were nice wide, comfortable lockers on each side, running fore
and aft, and a fine, solid, handsomely carved mahogany table in the
centre; but the cabin looked bare, for all the fittings of every kind
had been removed and put into store. Then, abaft the main cabin, there
was a small but exceedingly comfortable-looking stateroom, with standing
bedplace, drawers beneath, wash-stand, etcetera, and lighted by two
circular ports, one at the head and one at the foot of the bedplace,
which ran athwartships.
From the cabin we passed into the main hold; and I saw at once that this
could easily be fitted up and converted into a berth-deck for all hands
by merely running a few deck beams across, laying a deck, and running up
a bulkhead. We spent the whole morning aboard, making voluminous notes
of the various alterations that would be needed to fit the little vessel
for the new service to which she was destined; and that same afternoon
she was unmoored, taken alongside the wharf, and a strong gang of
dockyard workmen went aboard to begin upon the most obviously necessary
work, such as taking out her ballast prior to giving her interior a
thorough cleaning, and so on.
That night, at the Pen, after the guests had all left, Sir Peter called
upon me to give an account of my day's doings, to tell him what I
thought of the _Wasp_, and to produce and read my list of alterations
needed to complete the equipment of the schooner. Of all of these he
graciously approved, adding a few suggestions of his own; and on the
following morning, after going on board the hooker with me and examining
her inside and out, he gave orders for the whole of the work to be
proceeded with forthwith. As there were no other ships in port
refitting at the moment, it was a slack time at the dockyard, and almost
the whole of its resources were available to expedite the work, in
consequence of which the schooner was ready for sea a fortnight from the
day on which I first boarded her.
Meanwhile, the Admiral had made out and presented to me my acting order;
while, for my own part, I had been busy all day and every day, either at
the dockyard, superintending the work being done to the _Wasp_, or in
hunting up a crew for her. And as I attached very considerable
importance to the quality of my crew, and was quite determined to have
the very best I could obtain, a large proportion of my time was spent in
hunting for good men. Here it was that I found the services of
Henderson, late quartermaster of the _Europa_, of especial value, for
not only did he enter for the schooner, as he had promised he would when
I ran up against him as I was on my way to pay my first visit to the
_Wasp_, but, being equally as anxious as myself to have the little
vessel well manned, he had persuaded four good men--like himself
formerly of the _Europa_, wounded in our fight with the brigantine and
now convalescent--to join, thus forming at a stroke the nucleus of a
first-rate crew. But he had done a good deal more than this; for in
addition to the four men above referred to there were aboard the
guardship about a dozen others recently discharged from the hospital and
only requiring a few days of pure ocean air to set them on their pins
again, and he had persuaded these also to enter. Even this, however,
did not complete my obligations to the guardship, for there were aboard
her three midshipmen, an assistant surgeon, and a captain's clerk, all
of whom had been separated from their ships from some chance cause, and
I secured them all; the eldest of the midshipmen--named Willoughby--as
master, while the other two, very quiet, respectable lads, named
respectively Dundas and Hinton, I took more for their health's sake than
for any other reason. The assistant surgeon was named Saunders--him I
shipped as surgeon--while Millar, the captain's clerk, came with me as
purser; I obtained a gunner's warrant for Henderson, to his great
delight; and my remaining officers consisted of a fine, smart
boatswain's mate, named Pearce, who came as boatswain, and a carpenter's
mate named Mills, who came as carpenter. In addition to these, I had a
cabin steward, a cook, and a crew of forty-four men and four boys; I
therefore regarded myself as excellently equipped, so far as my crew
were concerned. Unfortunately, the schooner was too small to carry an
armament to which such a fine crew could do full justice, the utmost
that she would carry, with anything like safety, being six long
expounders; and even with the weight of these on her deck she seemed to
be just a trifle more tender than I altogether liked. It was, however,
the best that we could do with her, and with that I had to be content.
Having reported the schooner as ready for sea, and received my orders
from the Admiral, we slipped from Number 9 buoy on a certain morning,
immediately after breakfast, and proceeded to work out to sea, under
single-reefed mainsail, foresail, fore staysail, and Number 2 jib, in
the teeth of a fiery sea-breeze that made the palms at Port Royal Point
assume the aspect of so many umbrellas turned inside-out, and whirled
the sand up from the Palisades in blinding clouds to deposit it again in
the harbour and add to the magnitude of the shoal that is steadily
encroaching upon the deep-water area.
The little hooker became lively and began to pull at her cable, as
though impatient to be off, the moment that the hands tailed on to the
throat and peak-halliards of her immense mainsail, and proceeded to
hoist away; and when, having set the sail--which, by the way, was
beautifully cut, and stood as flat as a board--we slipped, and hauled
aft the jib-sheet, she heeled to the pressure of the wind as though
preparing to spring, and, with a little swirl of water about her sharp
stem as she paid off, proceeded to gather way, and the next moment was
sheering through the smooth water of the harbour like a hungry dolphin
in pursuit of a shoal of flying-fish. With all her sheets flattened-in
she came-to until she was looking up within three points of the wind,
careening to her bearings and sweeping as rapidly and almost as
noiselessly as a wreath of mist driving to leeward, the only sound she
made being a soft hissing at her cutwater as her sharp bow clove the
ripples and ploughed up a glass-like sheet of water on either side of
it. So closely did she hug the wind that we were able to shave close
past the red buoy which marks the edge of Church shoal, handsomely
weathering Number 2 buoy, skimming across the De Horsey Patch, and
shaving past the buoy on the Harbour shoal. By this time we were out
from under the shelter of Port Royal Point, and were beginning to feel
the first of the jump that the sea-breeze was kicking up outside; but it
appeared to make practically no difference in our speed, our abnormally
long, keen, wedge-like bow seemed to cleave the seas without effort or
resistance as they came at us, while the flaring overhang lifted the
little craft buoyantly over them, with nothing worse than a small
playful flash and patter of spray in over the weather cathead to tell of
the encounter. It would be difficult to say whether astonishment or
delight was the feeling that predominated in the breasts of all hands of
us, fore and aft, as we stood watching the really marvellous performance
of the little clipper while beating out of harbour. It was not her
speed only--although that seemed phenomenal, for she swept past every
other craft that was going our way as though they had been at anchor;
her weatherliness astounded us quite as much as did her speed, for she
looked up a good three points higher than did our square-rigged
neighbours, while her oil-smooth wake trailed away astern as straight as
a ruled line, with no apparent inclination to trend a hairbreadth
towards her weather quarter. She seemed to make no leeway at all!
"Well!" exclaimed Henderson, who was standing by me, close abaft the
weather main rigging, watching--as I was--the rapid sliding past us of
the various objects ashore, "I've heard people speak of a ship as
sailin' like a witch, but I'm only now comin' to rightly understand just
exactly what that expression means; it means goin' along precisely as if
you was shot out of a gun! Why, Mr Delamere, I don't believe as
there's anything afloat that can touch us--not, at all events, in
moderately smooth water. What we shall do in a heavy sea remains to be
seen; and we shall soon find that out, I reckon, for it's all foamin'
white away out there in the offing; but I've a notion that she'll go
over it all like a duck, provided that we don't drive her too hard.
Look at that, sir,"--as the schooner leapt from the crest of a sea into
the hollow beyond, and the foam buzzed and boiled to the level of her
lee head-rail and then went glancing away dizzily aft--"ain't that just
perfectly beautiful? Never shipped a drop, she didn't! And there
again! My eyes! but she _is_ a beauty, and no mistake."
"She is certainly behaving wonderfully well," I admitted, my voice all
a-quiver with pride. "How does she steer? Is she easy on her helm?" I
demanded of the man at the wheel.
"Gripes just the leastest bit in the world, sir, but nothin' worth
speakin' about. I could steer her wi' one hand," answered the man; and
to prove his words he placed one hand behind him and kept it there for a
minute or two while he grasped a spoke of the wheel with the other.
We had by this time brought the Beacon shoal about one point abaft the
weather-beam, and I was of opinion that we could weather it on the next
tack; I therefore gave the word, "Ready about--Helm's a-lee!" and
directed the helmsman to ease down the helm. He let go the wheel for a
moment, and the little hooker at once came to the wind with her
head-sails slatting and threshing as she spilled the wind out of them;
then he began to pull the wheel over toward him, and with one terrific
dive into a sea that came rushing at her, and which she split into two
showers of diamond spray that leapt half as high as her foremast before
it came driving aft in a shower that nearly drenched us to the skin,
round she swept like a gun upon its pivot, and was full again upon the
other tack almost before we could blink our eyelids. The beauty of a
fore-and-after is that she practically works herself, all that is needed
being three or four hands on the forecastle to trim over the jib and
fore sheets as she comes round. It was simply child's play compared
with the complicated manoeuvres that attend the working of a full-rigged
ship, and Henderson laughed aloud in his delight at the simplicity of
it.
"Why, Mr Delamere," he declared, "it's like sailin' the _Europa's_
launch, only easier. The launch never stayed as smartly as that, not so
long as I've knowed her!"
We weathered the Beacon shoal, with room to spare, as I expected we
should; and then kept away, with slightly eased sheets, for the passage
between Gun and Rackum Cays, after negotiating which we shaped a course
for Cow Bay and Yallah Points, off the latter of which we arrived
shortly after six bells in the forenoon watch had struck. Still hugging
the coast as closely as possible, we arrived off Port Morant about four
bells in the afternoon watch, about which time we found the sea-breeze
to be merging gradually into the Trade-wind and heading us so badly that
at length we were obliged to heave about and head off-shore. Here we
soon got into such a boil of a sea that the little hooker threatened to
smother herself, and it became necessary for us to haul down a second
and a third reef, and to take the jib off her, after which she went
along quite comfortably, shipping nothing worse than an occasional
sprinkling of spray over her weather-bow. At eight bells of the second
dog-watch we handsomely weathered Morant Point on our way out through
the Windward Channel, it being my purpose to work out through the Caycos
Passage, and then cruise to and fro athwart and to windward of the
Windward Passages--that being the cruising-ground which I believed the
pirates would be most likely to haunt.
Shortly before daybreak, on the third morning after leaving Port Royal,
we found ourselves rapidly drawing into smooth water--so rapidly,
indeed, that Pearce, the boatswain, whose watch it was, came down in
some alarm and roused me out, fearing that Willoughby, the midshipman
who was acting as master, had made a mistake in his reckoning, and that
we were about to blunder on to some danger or another. I was able,
however, to set the good man's mind at rest by explaining that we were
doubtless drawing in under the lee of the Caycos Bank, and that
therefore the water might naturally be expected to smoothen.
Nevertheless, feeling that I had had a good night's rest, and
understanding from Pearce that day would dawn in less than
half-an-hour's time, I turned out and, slipping into my trousers and
jacket, went up on deck. And very glad I was that I had done so, for I
was thus enabled to observe a very curious natural phenomenon, which one
might knock about in those seas for years without seeing, for the simple
reason that the circumstances must be favourable or the phenomenon is
not visible.
The Caycos Bank is a shoal lying some sixty-eight miles off Monte
Christi, on the north coast of Hayti. It measures about the same
distance from its north-western to its south-eastern extremity, and is
about sixty-two miles across from east to west at its widest point; it
is consequently of considerable extent, and from the fact that the depth
of water over it ranges from six feet to eighteen feet it is not without
its dangers, and must be approached with due caution, especially during
the hours of darkness. In daylight the danger is not nearly so great,
because the north-eastern and north-western edges of the shoal are
fringed by a number of cays among which the sea breaks heavily, while
the whole surface of the shoal is white water. And it is this same
white water which gives rise to the phenomenon above referred to,
locally known as "Bank Blink." It is simply the reflection of the
phosphorescence of the water in the clouds above; and the darker and
more overcast the night, the more distinctly is the reflection seen.
The phenomenon is, of course, quite natural and easily to be accounted
for, yet its occurrence can scarcely be regarded as less than
providential; for there can be no doubt whatever that its appearance in
the sky has often been the means of warning navigators that they were
approaching this danger, and so causing them to haul off in time to
avoid shipwreck.
Upon the night in question, when I first saw it, I found, upon going on
deck, that the darkness was profound, the sky being so completely
obscured by clouds that not so much as a single star was visible. But
away to windward, ranging from about two points on the weather-bow round
to square abeam, the clouds from almost overhead to within some fifteen
degrees of the horizon were faintly yet quite perceptibly tinged
greenish hue, the tinge being strongest about midway between our
weather-bow and beam. Pearce had noticed it, it appeared, when I came
to question him about it, and had thought that it might possibly portend
a change of weather until he had looked at the barometer and found it
inclined to rise; then he had become alarmed by the smoothing of the
water, which seemed to him far more portentous than the light on the
clouds.
I had not been on deck more than a quarter of an hour when the blackness
under the lower edge of the bank blink away over our starboard cathead
began to pale, first to a cold slaty-grey, and from that, by rapid
gradations, to a rich purple, then to crimson, and from crimson to an
orange tint so deep as to be almost scarlet, beneath which the horizon
loomed out black as ink, the intervening space of water lightening, as
it swept toward us, until at the distance of a couple of miles it became
a livid bluish-white. This marked the western edge of the shoal, and
sufficiently accounted for the smoothing of the deep-water in which we
were sailing.
As the orange light spread north and south from the point at which it
had originated, at the same time reaching upward from the horizon, the
bank blink began to fade, or rather to become merged in and overpowered
by it; and the shapes of the heavy, lowering clouds that overhung us
began to reveal themselves, their lower edges here and there suddenly
flushing into hues of the richest yet most delicate rose that rapidly
strengthened first into scarlet and then to burning gold as the rays of
the yet unrisen sun smote upon them. Presently, in the midst of the
rich orange light that was now flashing up on the eastern and
north-eastern horizon, there emerged a shape of indigo, practically
flat-topped, but with two small protuberances, one at each end, which,
by a stretch of the imagination, might be termed hills, rising to a
height of perhaps sixty or seventy feet. This was the island of West
Caycos, the most westerly of the cays on the bank, and ten minutes later
we were under its lee and within less than a cable's length from the
beach.
But what a change had taken place in the aspect of sea and sky during
those ten minutes! As we stood, spellbound, watching the gorgeous
changes of colour that were taking place along the eastern horizon, a
broad ray of white light, the edges slightly tinged with violet,
suddenly shot vertically aloft from the horizon, piercing the
cloud-masses as though with the thrust of a spear; and as though there
had been magic in the touch those cloud-masses at once began to break up
and melt away, assuming, ere they vanished, every conceivable tint of
the rainbow, from the deepest and richest hue of purple, through crimson
and scarlet, to purest molten gold. And while these wonderful changes
of colour were taking place, shaft after shaft of living, quivering
light flashed into the sky, radiating like the spokes of a wheel against
the warm primrose tints of the horizon--merging by imperceptible degrees
into the pure, delicate azure of the sky revealed by the breaking up and
dissolution of the clouds--to be followed, a few seconds later, by the
appearance above the horizon of a great rim of blazing, palpitating
golden fire, the level rays from which shot along the tumbling surface
of the ocean, splashing it with a million scintillating points of
dazzling light, as the crests of the tiny wavelets curled over and broke
under the whipping of the freshening breeze. Then, while we still stood
watching, a gauzy veil of rain--"the pride of the morning"--swept down
upon us, blotting out the glories of the sunrise for a brief minute or
two, then driving away to leeward, leaving our sails and deck dark with
wet, and revealing the sun, now fully risen, and the sky clear and pure
to windward.
With the freshening of the breeze we rapidly brought West Caycos first
abeam and then on our weather quarter, while the high land of
Providenciales grew upon the weather-bow. Here we were very nearly
getting into an exceedingly awkward scrape, for while I went below to
prepare for my morning bath under the head-pump, after witnessing the
magnificent sunrise that I have endeavoured to describe, the wind
suddenly fell light and died away; and then, while I was dressing after
my bath, the sea-breeze suddenly sprang up, blowing half a gale; and
there were we, not three miles from the land, with as dangerous a
stretch of lee-shore as is to be found in all this region abeam of us.
Fortunately the schooner's extraordinary weatherliness stood us in good
stead, and enabled us to claw off, but for which we should probably have
left her bones, if not our own, there. Our mid-afternoon observations
showed us to be in latitude 22 degrees 21 minutes North, and longitude
71 degrees 57 minutes West, which position I considered far enough out
for our purpose; we therefore hove about and, under short canvas,
proceeded to work our way slowly to the southward and eastward, on the
lookout for anything that might chance to come our way.
For several days after this nothing of moment occurred. Finally we
found ourselves some two hundred miles to the northward and eastward of
the Mona Passage, and I was debating within myself whether to bear up
and go back over the ground which I had just traversed, or to continue
on and have a look at Porto Rico. But while I was thinking over the
question, the lookout in the fore crosstrees reported a sail to
windward, quickly succeeded by several others, whereupon we made sail
and shaped a course that would enable us to get a somewhat clearer view
of them, and, if necessary, to intercept them.
The lookout aloft soon reported that the leading ship was under short
canvas, while those which immediately followed her were covered to their
trucks, and showing studdingsails as well, from which piece of
information it was not difficult for me to guess that the strangers to
windward consisted of a convoy of merchantmen, with its escort of
men-o'-war. This conjecture of mine soon proved to be correct, for
within half-an-hour of their first appearance the leading ships were in
sight from the deck, and we made out the biggest of them to be a 74-gun
ship, the others in sight obviously being merchantmen. As we closed,
with ensign and pennant hoisted, the commodore signalled me to come
alongside and send a boat aboard, which I did, going in the boat myself
to see what news I could pick up. I thus learned that the ship I had
boarded was the _Goliath_, the captain of which was the commodore of the
squadron of convoying ships, consisting of--in addition to the
_Goliath_--the frigates _Tourmaline_ and _Spartiate_, and the gun-brigs
_Vulcan, Wolverine, Spitfire_, and _Tortoise_; the convoy consisting of
three hundred and eighty-seven sail of all sorts, bound to the various
West Indian ports. I informed the commodore of the nature of the duty
upon which I had been sent out by the Admiral on the station, and
inquired whether any suspicious craft had been sighted during the
passage; to which he grimly replied in the affirmative, but added that
they had all been accounted for, and would be found, with prize-crews
aboard them, in the main body of the fleet. I stayed on board the
seventy-four for a couple of hours, gathering what news the inmates of
the ward-room could give me; during which the _Wasp_, under
boom-foresail and fore-staysail only, easily kept company with the
ponderous two-decker, looking in comparison with her "no bigger as my
thumb," as the negroes would say. She excited a great deal of
curiosity, on account of her very peculiar model, and likewise a very
considerable amount of admiration as she swept along lightly and
buoyantly as a seagull over the long undulations of the heavy swell that
was running. It was the first time that I had ever beheld her under
sail, from outside her own bulwarks, and although, looked down upon from
the lofty poop of the _Goliath_, she seemed to be the merest
cockle-shell, small enough to be hoisted inboard and stowed upon the
two-decker's main hatch, there was still a look of staunchness about her
that, coupled with the beauty of her form and the rakish sauciness of
her entire appearance, made me feel very proud of the fact that I
commanded her, as well as very anxious for an opportunity to show of
what she and her crew were capable.
Having extracted all the information I could obtain--which, after all,
was not very much--I made my adieux, descended the side, stepped into my
boat, and returned to the schooner. Upon rejoining her, we made sail
and hauled to the wind, in the hope of finding some picarooning craft
hanging on to the skirts of the convoy; but although we hovered in the
wake of the latter until the very last of them had disappeared beneath
the southern horizon, our hopes were vain; and, finally, I decided to
bear up for the Navidad, or Ship Bank, proceed through the Sea of Hayti
as far as the entrance of the Windward Channel, and then, if still
unsuccessful in my search for traces of the pirate, to work my way back
to the Atlantic by the Crooked Island Passage, exploring some of the
cays in Austral Bay on the way, they seeming to me to afford
considerable facilities for the establishment of a pirate depot.